Brecht felt that drama could instruct and change society; therefore, it should be political. He believed that effective theatre should bring the audience to the point of decision and action. To accomplish this, he wrote what he called epic - as opposed to narrative - dramas that continuously emphasized the theatrical aspects; the audience was thus constantly reminded that it was in a theatre and could therefore make rational judgments about the material presented
Therefore, in Brecht's version of epic theatre, he not only aspired to provoke the audience into reforming society by rethinking common ideology, he wanted the audience to see the characters in the play as part of a larger, more important whole. Brecht conceived "Epic Theatre" as one that would put the spectators in a position to form a judgement about what they saw on stage, which they might then act upon in their daily lives. The "alienation" device was the central means of achieving this. The essential purpose was to challenge the everyday way in which we "see" things, which we unthinkingly accept as "normal" and make us "see" with fresh eyes. We accept automatically, for example, that women wear skirts and men do not: that some areas of a city will look more attractive than other areas and that this will be linked to wealth; that it is right for one person to own many corporations, whilst others work in terrible conditions in mines; that famines happen in Africa, but not in the USA, and so on. The use of a bare stage, exposed lighting and scenic equipment, short scenes, combination of "reality" with the theatrical are the result of Brecht's “alienation” effect.
In Brecht's version of catharsis, at the end of the play the audience is left in a state of emotional elevation. In order to complete the emotional cleansing, the audience must take action against the social problem that was presented to them.
The first important factor of epic theatre is theatricalism, which simply means the audience is aware that they are in a theatre watching a play. Brecht believed that "seducing" the audience into believing they were watching "real life" led to an uncritical acceptance of society's values. He thought that by keeping the stage sets simple, showing exposed lighting instruments, breaking the action into open-ended episodes, projecting labels or photographs during scenes, or using a narrator or actors to directly address the audience, a production would allow an audience to maintain the emotional objectivity necessary to learn the truth about their society. This was shown in “Top Girls” by Carol Churchill at the Library theatre. The office scene was simple yet showed it was an office. Perhaps one of the most startling uses of a Brechtian technique in cinema in recent years was in Spielberg's Schindler's List with the red coat motif. The film is in black and white, suddenly we see red. We realise we are watching a film, we should not be entering into it and hoping the good guys beat the bad guys - that is too puerile a reaction for the subject
The Aristotelian play is essentially satiric; its task is to show the world how it is whereas the epic play is essentially dynamic and its task is to show the world as it changes.
The second key to epic theatre is the "distancing" or "alienation" effect, which has the same goals. Brecht wanted actors to strike a balance between "being" their character onstage and "showing the audience that the character is being performed."
In the Epic theatre the sources of light should be visible at all times, as they are, say, in a boxing ring (Brecht's comparison). Lighting should be uniformly bright; effects of colour and dimming are not to be allowed. This is partly explicable in terms of Brecht's taste for simplicity and austerity, partly in terms of his desire to avoid creating emotional effects.
In conclusion Brecht chose epic theatre because he wanted the audience to focus entirely on the play and to think about the meanings. Brecht felt that drama could instruct and change society; therefore, it should be political. He believed that effective theatre should bring the audience to the point of decision and action.
'Everything hangs on the story; it is the heart of the theatrical performance' (Brecht)
Purges the spectator of fear and pity through imitation of actions arousing fear and pity brought about through identification of the spectator with the characters in the play.
